Threats to Erie County & Williamsville Court Still Under Investigation

The reported phone threats toward the Williamsville Village Court and Erie County Court buildings last Friday remain under investigation at this time.

Erie County District Attorney John J. Flynn announces that 40-year-old Johnathan J. Rzoska of Williamsville was arraigned on Friday afternoon before Amherst Town Court Justice Kara Buscaglia on one count of Criminal Contempt in the First Degree (Class “E” felony), one count of Tampering with a Witness in the Third Degree (Class “E” felony) and one count of Aggravated Harassment in the Second Degree (Class “A” misdemeanor).

It is alleged that on the morning of Friday, December 16, 2022, the victim reported to Amherst Police that he had received a threatening text message from the defendant, which placed him in reasonable fear. The defendant allegedly sent the text message to the victim while knowingly in violation of an existing order of protection. The defendant, who was scheduled to appear in court, was taken into custody a short time later after he entered the parking lot of the Williamsville Village Court building.

Rzoska is scheduled to return on Thursday, December 22, 2022 at 11:30 a.m. for a felony hearing. He was held without bail.

The defendant was scheduled to appear in Williamsville Village Court on Friday morning for further proceedings in a pending criminal matter. Rzoska was arraigned before Williamsville Village Court Justice Jeffrey Voekl on one count of Aggravated Harassment in the Second Degree (Class “A” misdemeanor) and one count of Harassment in the Second Degree (violation) on October 14, 2022.

It is alleged that on August 30, 2022, at approximately 7:30 a.m., the defendant ran toward his landlord while making threats. The alleged incident occurred outside of the defendant’s residence on Cadman Drive in the Village of Williamsville.

It is further alleged that on September 6, 2022, at approximately 3:41 p.m., the defendant sent a threatening text message to his landlord, which placed the victim in reasonable fear. A temporary order of protection was issued for the victim and his family.

The defendant is also a person of interest in an active, ongoing investigation into reported threats toward two courthouses. On Friday, December 16, 2022, at approximately 8:25 a.m., Central Police Services received a phone call from a person who allegedly threatened to blow up the Erie County Court building and the Williamsville Village Court building. Both buildings were subsequently evacuated and searched by police.

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President Donald Trump conceded Thursday he may pull his own attorney general nominee rather than give two outgoing Republican senators what they are demanding.

Trump made the admission on Truth Social after the Senate Judiciary Committee postponed a vote on acting Attorney General Todd Blanche's nomination Wednesday night. The vote was canceled when it became clear two Republicans would block it.

Those two senators — Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) — are leaving Congress at the end of the year.

"Todd Blanche is a STAR, and everyone knows it!" Trump wrote on Truth Social. "He has the potential to go down as one of the Greatest Attorney Generals of All Time."

"I have no objection to temporarily withdrawing Todd's name, if they do not do the right thing, and putting him back after Cornyn and Tillis are out of office," Trump wrote.

Trump also attacked both senators directly, calling them men "whose political careers have been ended by my action" — a reference to his decision not to endorse them. He added that "both Cornyn and Tillis voted for Merrick Garland," invoking former Attorney General Merrick Garland, a name Republicans cite as a symbol of Democratic overreach.

On Capitol Hill Thursday morning, Cornyn told reporters the situation had taken a turn for the worse. Asked whether Blanche could be confirmed before the August recess, he said the odds were against it.

"It's looking doubtful," Cornyn told reporters, according to NBC News congressional reporter Laura Weiss.

Cornyn said talks with Blanche had been "very constructive" and that he believed a deal was close Tuesday night. But by Thursday morning, something had shifted.

"Other people intervening," he said. He told NBC News congressional correspondent Julie Tsirkin he did not know whether the president himself was standing in the way.

At the heart of the standoff is a settlement Trump's Department of Justice reached with the Internal Revenue Service. The deal granted Trump and his family immunity from tax audits and created a nearly $1.8 billion fund to compensate people who said they had been targeted by the government for political reasons.

The fund was later abandoned, but Cornyn wants that abandonment in writing — and wants the audit immunity narrowed so it does not cover future tax filings, according to MS NOW.

"All I want them to do is to confirm what he said in his sworn testimony before the Judiciary Committee, with regard not only to the weaponization fund, but also who is protected from future audits and what agencies of the federal government are bound by the release," Cornyn told reporters, according to CBS News.

The Department of Justice, Cornyn said, had not delivered. "They've simply refused to cooperate," he said, according to The Hill.

As of Thursday morning, Cornyn said he was waiting on a DOJ response to his latest offer and had no meetings or calls scheduled with the White House or the Department of Justice.